A Time To Heal
by Gaylien-sparkles
Summary: A strained family relationship, a building friendship, and the beauty in picking up the pieces. Eventual Azula/Toph


**A/N: Hey Kiddies, it's me again. Formerly known as anikitt, I'm here to bring you more Azulangst than you can shake a stick at. Why? 'cause I'm fond of that crazy bitch and I happen to think she needs a drinking buddy. This fic will be eventual Tozula, my Avatar OTP (hey, Bryke ships it!). This of course is not but an intro. I promise there is more to come, I just wanted to lay down the sibling dynamic between these two.  
Reviews fuel my motivation. ;)**

_"__I leave you with your misery  
A friend who won't betray  
I pull you from your tower  
I take away your pain  
And show you all the beauty you possess  
If you'd only let yourself believe that__"_

_Adia - Sarah McLachlan_

Her room is warm, soft, and comfortable. Too much for a tyrant to ask for, too little for a princess. She's forgotten where the line was drawn anyway. She's lived in this room for two years, maybe three. It is a cell and a tomb built on well-meaning promises. If she wants to read, they give her books. If she wants to write, they give her parchment.  
Mother visits once every two days, Zuzu once a week. She isn't happy, she's content. Bored maybe?  
She's passed the point of writing her raving thoughts down. Zuko brings her puzzles and problems to keep her occupied. He tells her that the doctor says, "A busy mind is a healthy one." She thinks he should soak his head in eelhound infested waters.  
Those kind of thoughts get her in trouble when said aloud.  
She paces, flexing and unflexing her fingers into fists. A clang and creak. Approaching footsteps. Doors. Finally.  
"Azula." He nods at her from the doorway.  
"Zuko." She replies shortly, tying back her unruly gray locks.  
"I brought you this, it's from Ba Sing Se." He holds out a cube, each side divided into smaller, unmatched sides. It is a test, as all of her gifts are. Uncle suggests them. He is reminding her of the city she conquered almost single-handedly.  
The city they conquered.  
"Feeling sentimental Zuzu?" She teases, a hint of her old self falling back into her tired voice.  
"Reminscing, yes." He places the cube on her desk and selectively picks up an old silver brush, "Come here." He commands.  
Azula feels like snarling and shooting his insolent ass with several hundred volts of lightning, but instead submissively nods and sits on the bed beside him. Zuko gently removes the ribbon from her hair and runs his fingers through the aged locks. _'Stress on the mind is reflected with stress on the body.'_ His 'inner-Uncle' voice muses. The brush glides through her silky hair as he asks her, "Anything new and exciting?"  
She snorts. Her eyes are closed in quiet relaxation, she allows herself to enjoy the peace of being close to another human. A betraying back-stabber who never deserved what he got, but a human nonetheless.  
"Our relations with General Fong have become... strained."  
"That shipment of blasting jelly ever reach his shores?"  
"It didn't."  
"Pirates?"  
"I'm guessing." Zuko sighs through his teeth. He places the brush down on the bed and takes the ribbon from her interlocked fingers. He gathers the gray locks into a rough bun and ties them together with the red strand. She tips backward to lean against his chest, one of their rarer acts of intimacy. Uneasily, Zuko wraps his arms around her waist. Azula tenses at this, her amber eyes snapping open and short-nailed hands clawing at his arms. He lets go, knowing he has gone too far.  
"I have business to attend to." He says, leaving before she can get wound up.  
Sparks crackle from her nostrols and stream from her breath, "Leaving so soon?"  
"My son needs me." He replies lamely. The door clicks quielty behind him.  
She stands in that same tense crouch for what feels like hours. Azula cracks her neck, she strides over to the desk and picks up the cube.  
It shatters against the wall in tiny square pieces.  
She doesn't feel like picking them up.


End file.
